FOR 1 NIGHT, CONVENTIONEERS FEEL A LITTLE BIT HOMELESS

Barbara BrotmanCHICAGO TRIBUNE

It is a rare conventioneer who would not be interested in a tour titled

''A Night on the Town.'' And yet it is a rarer conventioneer still who would be interested in the particular night-on-the-town tour offered to participants in the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials convention.

This night on the town was an overnight stay at a shelter for homeless people. The experience, or simply an evening visit to two shelters, was offered Tuesday night and Wednesday morning to housing officials and housing authority commissioners attending the convention this week at the Palmer House.

A night on the town would not be complete without dinner. This one included meat loaf, Spanish corn, peas and carrots, string beans and peaches, and was served at the Habilitative Systems shelter at 415 S. Kilpatrick St.

Tour participants engaged in spirited dinner conversation with shelter guests. ''Baby, it`s tough out there, you know that,'' said Edward Stewart, an affable 47-year-old homeless man with bloodshot eyes, to Richard Peddie, director of development for the Toronto Housing Department. ''There used to be signs up--busboy wanted, dishwasher wanted. No more, man.''

He told Peddie that he has been staying in shelters since he was laid off from his job assembling shower doors three months ago. The two share some common ground: Peddie`s agency runs two shelters.

Marge Halle, a commissioner with the Dover (N.H.) Housing Authority, described the experience as ''an opportunity I never would get again.'' She stayed overnight at the Habilitative Systems shelter with 3 colleagues, 56 homeless men and 14 homeless women. In Dover on an average winter night, she said, there are three homeless people.

Five others stayed at Catholic Charities` Sousa Overnight Shelter, 225 S. Aberdeen St. They helped with paperwork and occasionally dozed in chairs.

All night, there were strange noises and odd movements, they reported to colleagues in the morning. One woman dragged all her possessions in bags into the bathroom, where she remained for two hours. She showered for 40 minutes, and washed her hands for 20 minutes. A shelter worker said she did this every night.

Jeannette Benton, commissioner of the Evansville (Ind.) Housing Authority, said that when another woman went to the bathroom, she removed the shelter`s gown and put on a satin robe.

''I guess she was trying to show she had something,'' Benton said.

Halle and Lynn Edwards, a staffer for the national association and the tour coordinator, slept on cots in the same area with Habilitative Systems`

female clients. They stayed awake until 2 a.m., talking with homeless women about children, men and romance.

'' he said. ''I`m here because I have nowhere else to go. Most of the questions they asked me, they could have answered themselves.''

The officials encountered some surprises. A number of the homeless asked for wake-up calls at 3, 4 and 5 a.m. so they could go to jobs. Most sold newspapers.

''And a lot of the people, when they walked out, didn`t look like street people,'' one housing commissioner said. ''They looked really nice.''

They were impressed by the shelters, and by the homeless people`s determination to leave them. A man named John, 58, a tall, soft-spoken and graceful man who described himself as an engineer, architect, journalist, photographer and symphony composer, said he was still waiting for his tax return check.